british art and the first world war,...

British Art and the First World War, 1914–1924

The First World War is usually believed to have had a catastrophic effect on British art, killing artists and movements and creating a mood of belligerent philistinism around the nation. In this book, however, James Fox paints a very different picture of artistic life in wartime Britain. Drawing on a wide range of sources, he examines the cultural activities of largely forgotten individuals and institutions, as well as the press and the government, in order to shed new light on art’s unusual role in a nation at war. He argues that the confl ict’s artistic consequences, though initially disruptive, were ultimately and enduringly productive. He reveals how the war effort helped forge a much closer relationship between the British public and their art – a relationship that informed the country’s cultural agenda well into the 1920s.

JAMES FOX is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge.

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Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare

General Editor

Jay Winter, Yale University Advisory Editors David Blight, Yale University Richard Bosworth, University of Western Australia Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Carol Gluck, Columbia University Benedict Kiernan, Yale University Antoine Prost, Universit é de Paris-Sorbonne Robert Wohl, University of California, Los Angeles

In recent years the fi eld of modern history has been enriched by the exploration of two parallel histories. These are the social and cultural history of armed con-fl ict, and the impact of military events on social and cultural history.

Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare presents the fruits of this growing area of research, refl ecting both the colonization of mili-tary history by cultural historians and the reciprocal interest of military histo-rians in social and cultural history, to the benefi t of both. The series offers the latest scholarship in European and non-European events from the 1850s to the present day.

This is book 43 in the series, and a full list of titles in the series can be found at: www.cambridge.org/modernwarfare






BRITISH ART AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914–1924 JAMES FOX Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge






University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107105874 © James Fox 2015

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Fox, James, 1982–British art and the First World War, 1914–1924 / James Fox (Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge). pages cm. – (Studies in the social and cultural history of modern warfare)Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-10587-4 (hardback)1. World War, 1914–1918–Art and the war. 2. World War, 1914–1918–Social aspects– Great Britain. 3. Art, British–20th century. 4. Artists–Great Britain–History–20th century. 5. Art and society–Great Britain–History–20th century. 6. Great Britain–Intellectual life–20th century. I. Title. N9155.G7F69 2015709.41′0904–dc23 2015010003

ISBN 978-1-107-10587-4 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






CONTENTS

List of plates vi List of fi gures viii Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

1 The outbreak of war and the business of art 11

2 Perceptions of art 32

3 The arts mobilize 55

4 War pictures: truth, fi ction, function 82

5 Peace pictures: escapism, consolation, catharsis 109

6 Art and society after the war 133

Conclusion 157

Notes 162 Bibliography 192 Index 224






PLATES

1 Philip Dadd, ‘Bombardment of Fort Boncelles and Fort Barchon’, The Sphere (7 December 1914), pp. 20–1. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans.

2 Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World , 1918. Oil on canvas, 71.1 × 91.4 cm. Imperial War Museum. Photo: © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1146).

3 Tom Mostyn, The Garden of Peace , 1915. Oil on canvas, 172.5 × 233.7 cm. Walker Art Gallery. Photo © Bibby’s Annual.

4 George Clausen, A Wish , 1916. Lithograph, 63.5 × 101.6 cm. Published by Underground Electric Railway Company Ltd. London Transport Museum. Photo © TfL from the London Transport Museum collection.

5 Your Country’s Call , 1915. Parliamentary Recruiting Poster no. 87. Lithograph, 75.1 × 50 cm. Imperial War Museum. Photo: © IWM (Art.IWM PST 0320).

6 James Clark, The Great Sacrifi ce , 1914. Lithograph, 60.5 × 40 cm. Reproduced in The Graphic , 23 November 1914, p. i. Photo © the author.

7 John Nash, Over the Top: 1st Artists’ Rifl es at Marcoing , 30th December 1917 , 1918. Oil on canvas, 79.4 × 107.3 cm. Imperial War Museum. Photo: © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1656).






vii / List of plates

8 John Nash, The Cornfi eld , 1918. Oil on canvas, 68.6 × 67.2 cm. Tate Gallery. © The Estate of John Northcote Nash/The Bridgeman Art Library. Photo: © Tate, London 2014.

9 Laura Knight, Spring , 1916–20. Oil on canvas, 152.4 × 182.9 cm. Tate Gallery. © Tate, London 2014.

10 The Kemp-Prossor ‘Colour-Cure’ (advertisement for Lewis Berger & Sons Ltd), 1918. Lithograph, 24 × 12 cm. Reproduced in Colour magazine, March 1918, p. xiv. Photo © the author.

11 Edward McKnight Kauffer, ‘Soaring to Success! – The Early Bird’, 1919. Lithograph poster on paper, 297 × 152 cm. Victoria & Albert Museum, London © Simon Rendall.

Colour plates can be found between pages 116 and 117.






FIGURES

1.1 George Morrow, ‘Cartoon’, Punch (22 September 1915), p. 255. Reproduced with permission of Punch Limited, www.punch.co.uk . 14

2.1 Robert Baden-Powell, ‘Plans of Forts disguised as a sketch of a stained glass window’, reproduced in Robert Baden-Powell, My Adventures as a Spy (London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1915), p. 54. Photo © the author. 45

2.2 ‘An Apparently Innocent Landscape’, Illustrated War News (7 October 1914), pp. 28–9. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans. 46

2.3 E. E. Briscoe, ‘So vast is art, so narrow human wit’, Punch (9 June 1915), p. 441. Reproduced with permission of Punch Limited, www.punch.co.uk . 48

2.4 E. H. Shepard, ‘The Suspect’, Punch (9 September 1914), p. 222. Reproduced with permission of Punch Limited, www.punch.co.uk . 49

3.1 Auguste Rodin’s sculptures in Gallery 48, Victoria & Albert Museum, November 1914. Photograph. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 59

3.2 ‘Ivan Me š trovi ć , the Southern Slav Sculptor’, 1915. Lithograph poster on paper, 101.2 × 63.2 cm. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 60

3.3 ‘Old age must come: so prepare for it by investing in War Savings Certifi cates’, 1917. National Savings Committee Poster, no. 39.






ix / List of figures

Lithograph on paper, 98 × 62 cm. The National Archives, UK. Ref. NSC 5/605. 71

3.4 Bert Thomas, Arf a ‘mo’ Kaiser! , 1914. Lithograph poster on paper, 153.4 × 70.7 cm. Imperial War Museum. Photo IWM (Art.IWM PST 10799). © Solo Syndication/Associated Newspapers Ltd. 73

3.5 Norman Wilkinson, ‘Design for Dazzle Camoufl age’, reproduced in Encyclopaedia Britannica (London: F. E. Compton, 1922), p. 547. Courtesy Roy H. Behrens. 79

4.1 ‘Crowds around a War-Window at R. Jackson & Sons’ Moorfi eld Branch, Liverpool’, reproduced in Fine Art Trade Journal (September 1914), p. 265. 86

4.2 C. R. W. Nevinson, Banking at 4000 Feet , from Britain’s Efforts and Ideals , 1917. Lithograph on paper, 40.3 × 31.6 cm. Tate Gallery. © Tate, London 2014. 89

4.3 ‘Over the Top’, War Pictorial (September 1916), p. 9. Photo © the author. 93

4.4 Frederic Villiers, ‘View of Trenches on the Western Front, 1914’, reproduced in Frederic Villiers, His Five Decades of Adventure (London: Hutchinson, 1921), vol. II, pp. 318–19. Photo © the author. 96

4.5 George Morrow, ‘The War Artist’, Punch (15 November 1916), p. 353. Reproduced with permission of Punch Limited, www.punch.co.uk . 99

4.6 Frederic Villiers, ‘Panorama’, Illustrated London News (3 October 1914), p. i. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans. 101

4.7 Fortunino Matania, ‘Cossaks of the Russian Army Charging the German Death’s Head Hussars between Korschen and Bartenstein in East Prussia’, The Sphere (3 October 1914), pp. 12–13. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans. 103






x / List of figures

4.8 W. S. Bagdatopulos, ‘Corporal James Upton Dragging a Wounded Comrade to the Trenches’, reproduced in Deeds that Thrill the Empire: True Stories of the Most Glorious Acts of Heroism of the Empire’s Soldiers and Sailors during the Great War (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1917), vol. I, p. 129. Photo © the author. 105

4.9 William Rider-Rider, Passchendaele, Now a Field of Mud , 1917. Photograph, dimensions unknown. Library and Archives Canada/Department of National Defence fonds/PA-040139. 106

5.1 B. W. Leader, Peace , 1915. Oil on canvas, dimensions unknown. Whereabouts unknown. Reproduced in Royal Academy Pictures and Sculpture , London, 1915, p. 20. 112

5.2 Philip de L á szl ó , Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh , 1914. Oil on board, 90.2 × 73.3 cm. Mount Stewart, Londonderry Collection, National Trust. Photo: Bryan Rutledge © De L á szl ó Foundation. 119

5.3 Elliott & Fry, Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer , 1911. Photograph, dimensions unknown. Private collection. Photo: © De L á szl ó Foundation. 124

5.4 Philip de L á szl ó , Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer , 1917. Oil on canvas, 70.5 × 50.8 cm. Private collection. Photo: Roy Fox Fine Art Photography © De L á szl ó Foundation. 125






ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have been working on this book intermittently since I began my doctoral thesis in October 2006. The project thus possesses the dubious honour of lasting twice as long as the war it chronicles. And yet it would not have been possible at all without the advice, support and assistance that I have been fortunate enough to receive over the last eight years. My gratitude must fi rst go to my supervisor Duncan Robinson, who agreed to take me on as his PhD student in the fi rst place. I am grateful to other colleagues at the University of Cambridge, particu-larly Jean Michel Massing, whose wisdom and friendship have proved invalu-able throughout. I have also received advice from a legion of scholars in the fi eld who have made the time to offer suggestions that helped shape (and reshape) this volume. Grace Brockington, Michael Walsh, Maria Tippett and David Peters Corbett have been especially charitable.

This project relied heavily on primary sources, and thus on the competence and benevolence of their custodians: my thanks go to Simon Fenwick at the Royal Watercolour Society; Mark Pomeroy at the Royal Academy; Monica Grose-Hodge at the Art-Workers’ Guild; Emmanuel Minne at the Royal Society of British Sculptors; Emma Pearce at Winsor & Newton; Alan Crookham at the National Gallery; and to the staff at the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution and the Professional Classes Aid Council, who opened their offi ces to me. I must single out Sandra de Laszlo and Caroline Corbeau at the De L á szl ó Foundation in London for particular praise: they allowed me to pore over Philip de L á szl ó ’s remarkable papers (many of which were uncatalogued at the time), and met my every request with generosity, enthusiasm and effi ciency.

It goes without saying that this book would never have happened were it not for the support I received from various institutions in Britain and beyond. I am grateful to the Arts & Humanities Research Council, who funded my doctoral studies; to Churchill College, Cambridge, who gave me a base from which to work following the completion of my PhD; to the Yale Center for British Art, where a visiting scholarship allowed me to undertake further research in the






xii / Acknowledgements

autumn of 2010; to Hawthornden Castle for granting me an invaluable month of undisturbed writing time; and above all to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, whose generous four-year Research Fellowship gave me the neces-sary space to transform my doctoral thesis into the (very different) book that exists today.

Some of the material here has appeared in other places before. Parts of Chapter 2 were published as ‘ “Traitor Painters”: Artists and Espionage in the First World War, 1914–1918’, British Art Journal 10 (Spring 2009); and as ‘ “Fiddling While Rome is Burning”: Hostility to Art during the First World War, 1914–1918’, Visual Culture in Britain 10 (Spring 2010). Material that was published as ‘Confl ict and Consolation: British Art and the First World War, 1914–1919’, Art History 36 (September 2013), pp. 810–33, reappears here in Chapter 5 and I am grateful to the Association of Art Historians for granting me permission to reproduce it. I must also thank the team at Cambridge University Press who con-verted my shabby manuscript into such an elegant volume. Michael Watson was a pleasure to work with; Christopher Feeney was a superb copy editor; Rosalyn Scott was a model of effi ciency; and my anonymous readers scrutinized the text with diligence and insight – and saved me from embarrassment at several points. And last but emphatically not least I must express my gratitude to the series edi-tor Jay Winter. An exceptional historian whose vast output is as terrifying as it is inspiring, Jay’s support has meant a very great deal to me. It is a pleasure and an honour to be published in the wonderful series that he edits.

Finally, I must thank my friends and my family: to Jessica Berenbeim, Tom Stammers and Kirty Topiwala for advising on (and tolerating) the banalities of ‘writing up’; to my grandfather for offering me a quiet space in Cyprus in which I was able to write this book’s introduction and conclusion; to my obsessively tidy mother, who somehow endured a dining-table littered with library books and laptop leads for the best part of eight years; and of course to my brother Josh, who – though I never tell him – is my greatest inspiration.






british art and the first world war,...

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